Photographers, both digital and traditional, are always looking for innovative ways to capture that perfect image. With all the different types of cameras, lenses, and computer programs on the market, it seems the possibilities are endless. One of the many creative effects photographers sometimes like to create is to have a certain area of an image in sharp focus, while other areas are softly blurred. This effect can be created with the use of depth of field, with a diffusion filter, and with the lens called Lensbaby 2.0.

The Lensbaby, and improved, sharper, faster Lensbaby 2.0, is a selective focus lens that allows for a sharp area of focus, or ‘sweet spot’, surrounded by a graduated blur. The lens is adjusted with a bellows-collar that moves in and out to focus in on the subject, while, at the same time, it creates the soft blurred effect in the surrounding areas.

Photographer Craig Strong, creator of the Lensbaby, was looking for a digital replacement for his beloved Holga camera. The clever combination of an old-fashioned bellows camera and tilt-shift lens, this incarnation can create images that were once thought only possible through the use of Photoshop. Compatible with most film SLRs and DSLR cameras, even older model 35mm SLRs with screw mount, the Lensbaby and Lensbaby 2.0 is available for everyone.

What sets this lens apart is that it gives the photographer greater control over creativity. The same scene can be shot many times, all with different effects. Just a simple tilt of the bellows with the tip of the finger, and the sweet spot can be altered, the blur can be increased or decreased, highlights can be created, or a simple, subtle glow can enhance a subject.

The distorted effects of your images can also be controlled by varying the use of the aperture disks that come with both the Lensbaby and Lensbaby 2.0. The improved Lensbaby 2.0, when used with no aperture disk, shoots at f/2.0, while the other disks range from f/2.8 up to f/8.0. The larger the disk, the more diffused the image will be; the smaller the disk, the sharper the image becomes.

I shoot primarily with a Nikon N90, and found the Lensbaby 2.0 to be a wonderful addition to my camera bag. I sometimes shoot with a Holga camera, and I love the soft focus and vignetting a Holga camera can create. The Lensbaby 2.0 can create the same effect, but with more control. I can put the sweet spot exactly where I want it, and also control how distorted and blurred the surrounding areas are.